An Orion Township benefit concert is planned to help local girl who has cancer

A fundraising event for Alayna Zalac, 12, of Orion Township, will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Wildwood Pavilion at Civic Center Park on Joslyn Road. Zalac, a seventh-grade student at Waldon Middle School, was diagnosed with cancer this summer and is suffering from side effects from her chemotherapy treatments. More than 20 local bands and musicians will perform at the concert, which also will include 20 booths, a silent auction and food provided by Buffalo Wild Wings and Culver’s.

ORION TWP - It has been dubbed, “A Concert for Alayna.”More than 20 local bands and musicians will perform Saturday in Orion Township for a daylong event to raise money for Alayna Zalac’s family. Zalac, a 12-year-old Orion Township resident, was diagnosed with leukemia this summer and is recovering from complications from her chemotherapy treatments.The benefit will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Wildwood Pavilion at Civic Center Park on Joslyn Road.Besides the musicians, there will be more than 20 vendors with food and products. Buffalo Wild Wings, which has a restaurant in Orion Township, will supply wings in exchange for donations, and Culver’s has donated frozen custard for the event.Zalac’s good friend, Jackie Priebe, a freshman at Lake Orion High School, has organized the event with the help of her mother, Dawn. But it really wasn’t that hard to get the community involved, Jackie Priebe said.“I didn’t expect it to be this big at all,” she said. “I thought it was going to be just a couple of people. Everybody wants to be in it and wants to help as much as they can.”Priebe, 14, of Orion Township, is friends with Alayna’s sister, Madalyn, and has known Alayna since they were all students at Stadium Drive Elementary School. When the older girls had Girl Scout meetings, the younger Alayna would go, too.“Alayna would always stay with us,” Priebe said. “She would hang out with us and be part of the Girl Scout family. We always thought of her as our little sister. Our families have known each other for awhile.”Priebe got the idea to organize a benefit after she performed at the Wildwood Musical Festival at the same pavilion in August.“I thought it would be very cool to do this concert for her, so she can see how many people care about her. It’s a way for us all to get together as a community and realize we need to stick together to get through this.”After suggesting the idea on a Facebook page, Priebe has been overwhelmed with offers from people willing to perform or provide goods and services. A Lake Orion business called Unforgettable Occasions, for instance, donated tents, chairs and tables.Zalac, who attended Waldon Middle School in the spring, is recovering from complications from her chemotherapy treatments at University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. She recently was moved from intensive care, Dawn Priebe said, and will need extensive rehabilitation.The Priebe family hopes to raise $10,000 from the event, money that could be used to make the Zalac’s home handicap accessible or to travel. Zalac’s parents are Teri Huff, her mother, and her mother’s husband Jamie Huff and her father, Michael Zalac, who refers to his daughter as his Warrior Princess.Jackie Priebe visited her friend in the hospital this week and played guitar for her.“She has always been a bubbly person,” Priebe said. “She is so funny and could crack a joke whenever you needed one. I always saw her as a little sister. She’s very light-hearted.”Zalac also has an interest in guitar, and Priebe hopes to give her lessons when she returns home.At the benefit, there will be a silent auction with more than 50 items including four rounds of golf donated by Cattails Golf Club in South Lyons, valued at $300. In addition, local residents will sale handmade items, and there will be a tent with “Team Alayna” gear including purple jewelry, her favorite color.Donations can be made through www.youcaring.com/teamalayna, which has raised $5,000 in two weeks. More information also can be found on the Facebook page under the name Team Alayna.“It’s been the most amazing, heart warming thing I’ve seen probably in my lifetime,” Dawn Priebe said. “It is bringing a community together, and it’s giving them hope surrounding little Alayna.”